FANTASY FOOTBALL NEWS

Is Andrei Iosivas The Bengals' No. 3 WR?

By Jared Smola | Updated on Wed, Jul 31 2024 2:29 PM UTC

The Athletic's Paul Dehner suggests Andrei Iosivas is the favorite to win the Bengals' No. 3 WR job. "The more Iosivas stacks practices, the more you wonder whether he won’t just soak up nearly all of [Tyler] Boyd’s 824 vacated snaps from last season," Dehner writes.

What They're Saying

Dehner calls Iosivas the "offensive star of camp" so far -- although it's worth noting that WR Ja'Marr Chase has not participated as he angles for a new contract and WR Tee Higgins has been limited.

2024 Fantasy Football Impact

Cincinnati's No. 3 WR could have spot-start fantasy value this season even when Chase and Higgins are healthy. The Bengals have ranked seventh in pass attempts and second in pass rate over expected in each of the last two years, so there's volume to go around.

It's been presumed that Jermaine Burton would win the No. 3 WR job after Cincinnati took him in the third round of this spring's draft. But the rookie has struggled getting on the same page as QB Joe Burrow so far, according to Dehner.

That's allowed Iosivas to evidently pass Burton on the depth chart at least for now. The 2023 sixth-rounder caught just 15 balls as a rookie last year but was always considered a project coming out of Princeton. His ceiling is exciting, though. Iosivas goes 6'3, 205 pounds with a 4.43-second 40 time and 39-inch vertical.

We'll continue to keep a close eye on this battle for the No. 3 WR job over the next month. But, for now, Iosivas and Burton should be going much closer in best-ball drafts. Recent Underdog ADP has Burton going in Round 13 vs. Iosivas in Round 19 (which means he often goes undrafted).

Jared Smola, Lead Analyst

Jared has been with Draft Sharks since 2007. He’s now Lead Analyst, heading up the preseason and weekly projections that fuel your Draft War Room and My Team tools. He currently ranks sixth among 158 analysts in draft rankings accuracy.